Æbleskiver (Danish Spherical Pancakes)
Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 9 Steps 5
Æbleskiver or ebleskiver (literally "apple slices") are traditional Danish cakes, somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes. Æbleskiver are cooked in a special æbleskive pan, a cast-iron pan with several hemispherical indentations in the bottom of the pan.
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- 2 cups (480 ml) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) white sugar
- ½ teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (5 ml) salt
- 4 tablespoons (60 ml) butter, melted
- 2 cups (480 ml) buttermilk
- 1 cup (240 ml) vegetable oil, for frying
Steps
- Beat whites until stiff.
- Beat flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk together until smooth. Fold in egg whites last.
- Put about 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil in each cup of the æbleskiver pan. Heat until hot. Pour about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) batter into each cup.
- Turn quickly as soon as bubbly around the edge. Or turn halfway first, then the remaining 90° after a while, for a perfect ball. Use a fork or long knitting needle.
- Keep turning the balls to prevent burning until cooked.
Notes from the original
- An æbleskiver pan is required to cook these properly.
- They were traditionally cooked with bits of apple or applesauce inside but these ingredients are not normally included in modern Danish forms of the dish.
- Æbleskiver are not sweet themselves but are traditionally sprinkled with powdered sugar, accompanied with raspberry or sometimes strawberry jam, and served with gløgg.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Æbleskiver (Danish Spherical Pancakes)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-21, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Aebleskiver.jpg by JoachimK, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.